Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 2 inch piece of whole vanilla bean, more if you like it more vanilla-y
• 2 egg yolks
• ½ cup baker’s sugar (regular granulated sugar will work fine too)
• 2 Tbsp of good quality pure vanilla extract (Spice Hunter)

Directions:

1. Combine the cream and milk along with the vanilla bean in a medium saucepan and heat slowly over a medium heat until the mixture ALMOST boils. About 5- 8 minutes. Reduce heat to very low.
2. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract until light yellow and smooth. Slowly add about ¼ cup of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolk mixture while stirring continuously. Then take the egg mixture and combine it with the now warm cream mixture. This process is called tempering. The trick is to be stirring continuously so that at no time will the egg yolks curdle or cook up separately to the mixture.
3. Heat the new cream and egg mixture until it starts to thicken. The custard you are forming should coat the back of a wooden spoon well. Remove this mixture from the heat and cool completely before the next step. At this point you can even put it into the refrigerator overnight or sit it in an ice bath to get cold.
4. Once the mixture is cold, scrap the vanilla seeds from the bean pod and discard the pod. Stir the vanilla seeds into the custard.
5. Scrap all the custard into the bowl of the ice cream maker and turn the machine on. It will take about 25 minutes for the ice cream to freeze and thicken.
6. If you like soft serve, you can eat the ice cream right away, or put it into an air tight container and freeze for 2 or more hours before serving.